Is my Firewire port failing?

I have an external LaCie FW400 drive (APM formatted, not bootable) which works perfectly with my Intel MacBook Pro (10.5.1) but causes much grief on my Intel Alu iMac (10.5.2). Could these symptoms indicate that my iMac's FW400 port is malfunctioning - or is there another explanation?
1. On three occasions now, my iMac Finder has frozen when I was browsing files in column view on the external FW drive. No freezes at any other time. On these occasions, the Finder cannot be relaunched and I have to power down.
2. On several occasions, the FW400 drive has refused to mount on the iMac - but mounts readily when immediately switched to the MBP. Rebooting the iMac will usually make the FW drive mount again.
3. When rebooting the iMac with the FW drive mounted, it is sometimes very slow through the grey startup screen, ie it can take 3 minutes to boot compared with 25 seconds normally.
4. I also have an external LaCie FW800 drive (GUID formatted, Time Machine) which never causes any problems and doesn't give me slow restarts.
5. I have run Disk Utility and 3rd-party diagnostic tests on the FW400 drive and it always comes up smelling of roses.
6. Permissions are regularly repaired on the iMac and the internal hard disk is checked daily. I did suffer corruption on a Boot Camp partition but this has since been deleted.
I'm not sure which utility checks the integrity of the Firewire ports. TechTool checks USB but doesn't list Firewire among its checks. The Apple Hardware Test (extended) seems to test only RAM and storage. If anyone knows of a Firewire test I would be keen to run it. Otherwise, I am preparing to tell Apple that there is something wrong with my FW400 port - unless the symptoms above can be explained by something else.
Simon

My TM dive was correctly named anyway (just "Time") so even though it was turned off most of the time, I wouldn't have been affected by this part. My computer name had both an apostrophe and a space (inserted by the Os, not by me, when setting up the computer) so I changed it and that didn't cure my problem.
I have found some CrashReporter logs of my Finder crashes (8 in one morning) and also of a SystemUIServer crash which preceded them by an hour and of a TextEdit crash which was the first sign of trouble, 30 minutes earlier. I wish I knew what bits to extract and post here but here's a sample from each:
TEXTEDIT:
Process: TextEdit [12890]
Path: /Applications/TextEdit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit
Identifier: com.apple.TextEdit
Version: 1.5 (244)
Build Info: TextEdit-2440000~2
Code Type: X86 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [105]
Date/Time: 2008-02-23 11:04:13.512 +0000
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.5.2 (9C31)
Report Version: 6
Exception Type: EXCBADACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: 0x000000000000000a, 0x0000000015b53110
Crashed Thread: 0
Thread 0 Crashed:
0 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x9538683b CIconStorageEntry::Load(CIconFamilyLoader*, unsigned long) + 785
1 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95386fd0 CLocalRefToSharedStorageEntry::Load(CIconFamilyLoader*, unsigned long) + 134
2 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x9532f43d CIconStorageEntry::GetData(long) + 103
3 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x9532f37e _ISGetIconDataPointer + 42
4 com.apple.LaunchServices 0x95beb1b9 CheckIfDataAvailable(unsigned long, void*) + 53
Thread 0 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit):
eax: 0x00000000 ebx: 0x9538653e ecx: 0x00019110 edx: 0x15b53110
edi: 0x00896d30 esi: 0x00019110 ebp: 0xbfffc878 esp: 0xbfffc780
ss: 0x0000001f efl: 0x00010202 eip: 0x9538683b cs: 0x00000017
ds: 0x0000001f es: 0x0000001f fs: 0x00000000 gs: 0x00000037
cr2: 0x15b53110
SYSTEMUISERVER
Process: SystemUIServer [97]
Path: /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemUIServer.app/Contents/MacOS/SystemUIServer
Identifier: SystemUIServer
Version: ??? (???)
Code Type: X86 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [81]
Date/Time: 2008-02-23 11:33:14.752 +0000
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.5.2 (9C31)
Report Version: 6
Exception Type: EXCBADACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERNPROTECTIONFAILURE at 0x0000000000000008
Crashed Thread: 0
Thread 0 Crashed:
0 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x9285fdad _ClientGetDiscoveredComponentArray(DiscoveredComponentArray**, DiscoveredComponentArray**, DiscoveredComponentArray**) + 763
1 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x9285f96e registerSystemComponents + 94
2 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x9285f6b5 FindNextComponentInternal(ComponentRecord*, ComponentDescription*) + 95
3 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x9285f63f FindNextComponent + 53
4 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92cb8719 islcGetComponentFromBundleID + 76
5 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92c20b8d islcGetIdentifierFromCacheElem + 240
6 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92c209c9 islGetInputSourceIdentifier + 107
7 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92e1c831 islCreateInputMethodCharacterRepertoire + 142
8 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92e1c8d3 islCreateInputMethodScriptCode + 38
9 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92c24ca4 islCreateInputMethodPropertyForInputSource + 53
10 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92c202f2 islGetInputSourceProperty + 2982
11 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92c1f688 TSMGetInputSourceProperty + 289
12 com.apple.menuextra.textinput 0x0071d9b8 0x71c000 + 6584
13 com.apple.menuextra.textinput 0x0071f6d8 0x71c000 + 14040
14 com.apple.menuextra.textinput 0x0071e8a0 0x71c000 + 10400
15 com.apple.menuextra.textinput 0x00720211 0x71c000 + 16913
16 com.apple.menuextra.textinput 0x00720de8 0x71c000 + 19944
17 com.apple.menuextra.textinput 0x00720e91 0x71c000 + 20113
18 com.apple.menuextra.textinput 0x0072385c 0x71c000 + 30812
19 com.apple.menuextra.textinput 0x007240e5 0x71c000 + 32997
20 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x95249e21 __CFMessagePortPerform + 193
21 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x9526b921 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 3921
22 com.apple.CoreFoundation 0x9526bd18 CFRunLoopRunInMode + 88
23 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92c146a0 RunCurrentEventLoopInMode + 283
24 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92c144b9 ReceiveNextEventCommon + 374
25 com.apple.HIToolbox 0x92c1432d BlockUntilNextEventMatchingListInMode + 106
26 com.apple.AppKit 0x907787d9 _DPSNextEvent + 657
27 com.apple.AppKit 0x9077808e -[NSApplication nextEventMatchingMask:untilDate:inMode:dequeue:] + 128
28 com.apple.AppKit 0x907710c5 -[NSApplication run] + 795
29 com.apple.systemuiserver 0x000057c4 0x1000 + 18372
30 com.apple.systemuiserver 0x000052c6 0x1000 + 17094
Thread 0 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit):
eax: 0x00000000 ebx: 0x9285fabd ecx: 0x00000000 edx: 0xa030f8c8
edi: 0x005edba0 esi: 0xa03063a0 ebp: 0xbfffe568 esp: 0xbfffe4b0
ss: 0x0000001f efl: 0x00010246 eip: 0x9285fdad cs: 0x00000017
ds: 0x0000001f es: 0x0000001f fs: 0x00000000 gs: 0x00000037
cr2: 0x00000008
FINDER 1A
Process: Finder [173]
Path: /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder
Identifier: Finder
Version: ??? (???)
Code Type: X86 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [136]
Date/Time: 2008-02-23 13:01:38.658 +0000
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.5.2 (9C31)
Report Version: 6
Exception Type: EXCBADACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: 0x000000000000000a, 0x00000000006a1b77
Crashed Thread: 3
Thread 3 Crashed:
0 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x9538696c CIconStorageEntry::Load(CIconFamilyLoader*, unsigned long) + 1090
1 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95386fd0 CLocalRefToSharedStorageEntry::Load(CIconFamilyLoader*, unsigned long) + 134
2 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x9532dff7 _ISGetStorageRefFromLoader(CIconFamilyLoader*, unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long*) + 675
3 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95331cc4 _ISGetStorageByIconFile + 128
4 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x953329bf _ISAddFSRefIconToImage + 145
5 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95337da4 SFLMutableListItem::SetNewPrefs(__CFDictionary const*, unsigned short, OpaqueISImageRef*) + 1700
6 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x953376f9 SFLMutableListItem::SFLMutableListItem(unsigned long, __CFDictionary const*, short, unsigned short, OpaqueISImageRef*, unsigned char*) + 139
7 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x953375fa SFLMakeNewListItem(unsigned long, __CFDictionary const*, short, unsigned short, OpaqueISImageRef*) + 88
8 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x9533754e SFLListBase::AppendFromListInfo(__CFArray const*, __CFArray const*, unsigned short) + 458
9 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95337229 SFLRemoteEntry::InstantiateFromPrefs(unsigned long*, __CFDictionary const**) + 219
10 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95336e6a SFLRemoteEntry::MakeSnapshotList(unsigned long*) + 190
11 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95336d5f _SFLCreateSnapshot + 87
12 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954cc41d LockSFLCreateSnapshot(OpaqueSFLRef*, unsigned long) + 55
13 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x95524a7d TSFLSynchronizer::TSFLSynchronizer(TNodePtr const&, OpaqueSFLRef*, bool) + 101
14 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954cba15 TNode::PopulateVirtualContainerFromSFL(OpaqueSFLRef*, bool) + 197
15 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954c930a TNodeSyncTask::HandleInternalEventVirtualChildListChanged(TCountedPtr<TNodeEven t> const&, TNodePtr const&) + 110
16 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954c9194 TNodeSyncTask::HandleInternalEvent(TCountedPtr<TNodeEvent> const&) + 320
17 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954c8ac6 TNodeSyncTask::SyncTaskProc(void*) + 160
18 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x9287abeb PrivateMPEntryPoint + 56
19 libSystem.B.dylib 0x934d6c55 pthreadstart + 321
20 libSystem.B.dylib 0x934d6b12 thread_start + 34
Thread 3 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit):
eax: 0x006a1b7d ebx: 0x9538653e ecx: 0x006a1b73 edx: 0x934a59e6
edi: 0x006a1b73 esi: 0x006a1b73 ebp: 0xb01a4098 esp: 0xb01a3fa0
ss: 0x0000001f efl: 0x00010212 eip: 0x9538696c cs: 0x00000017
ds: 0x0000001f es: 0x0000001f fs: 0x0000001f gs: 0x00000037
cr2: 0x006a1b77
FINDER 1B
Process: Finder [153]
Path: /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder
Identifier: com.apple.finder
Version: ??? (???)
Build Info: Finder_FE-6071400~5
Code Type: X86 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [136]
Date/Time: 2008-02-23 13:01:03.245 +0000
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.5.2 (9C31)
Report Version: 6
Exception Type: EXCBADACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: 0x000000000000000a, 0x0000000000698004
Crashed Thread: 3
Thread 3 Crashed:
0 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x953868b9 CIconStorageEntry::Load(CIconFamilyLoader*, unsigned long) + 911
1 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95386fd0 CLocalRefToSharedStorageEntry::Load(CIconFamilyLoader*, unsigned long) + 134
2 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x9532dff7 _ISGetStorageRefFromLoader(CIconFamilyLoader*, unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long*) + 675
3 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95331cc4 _ISGetStorageByIconFile + 128
4 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x953329bf _ISAddFSRefIconToImage + 145
5 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95337da4 SFLMutableListItem::SetNewPrefs(__CFDictionary const*, unsigned short, OpaqueISImageRef*) + 1700
6 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x953376f9 SFLMutableListItem::SFLMutableListItem(unsigned long, __CFDictionary const*, short, unsigned short, OpaqueISImageRef*, unsigned char*) + 139
7 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x953375fa SFLMakeNewListItem(unsigned long, __CFDictionary const*, short, unsigned short, OpaqueISImageRef*) + 88
8 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x9533754e SFLListBase::AppendFromListInfo(__CFArray const*, __CFArray const*, unsigned short) + 458
9 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95337229 SFLRemoteEntry::InstantiateFromPrefs(unsigned long*, __CFDictionary const**) + 219
10 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95336e6a SFLRemoteEntry::MakeSnapshotList(unsigned long*) + 190
11 ...ple.CoreServices.OSServices 0x95336d5f _SFLCreateSnapshot + 87
12 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954cc41d LockSFLCreateSnapshot(OpaqueSFLRef*, unsigned long) + 55
13 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x95524a7d TSFLSynchronizer::TSFLSynchronizer(TNodePtr const&, OpaqueSFLRef*, bool) + 101
14 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954cba15 TNode::PopulateVirtualContainerFromSFL(OpaqueSFLRef*, bool) + 197
15 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954c930a TNodeSyncTask::HandleInternalEventVirtualChildListChanged(TCountedPtr<TNodeEven t> const&, TNodePtr const&) + 110
16 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954c9194 TNodeSyncTask::HandleInternalEvent(TCountedPtr<TNodeEvent> const&) + 320
17 com.apple.DesktopServices 0x954c8ac6 TNodeSyncTask::SyncTaskProc(void*) + 160
18 ...ple.CoreServices.CarbonCore 0x9287abeb PrivateMPEntryPoint + 56
19 libSystem.B.dylib 0x934d6c55 pthreadstart + 321
20 libSystem.B.dylib 0x934d6b12 thread_start + 34
Thread 3 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit):
eax: 0x00000000 ebx: 0x9538653e ecx: 0xb01a407c edx: 0x00698000
edi: 0x00000000 esi: 0x0004119e ebp: 0xb01a4098 esp: 0xb01a3fa0
ss: 0x0000001f efl: 0x00010246 eip: 0x953868b9 cs: 0x00000017
ds: 0x0000001f es: 0x0000001f fs: 0x0000001f gs: 0x00000037
cr2: 0x00698004
The other 6 Finder crashes that morning look fairly similar; anyway they all have same thread 3 crash.
Simon

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27" iMac Firewire Port fails after 300 days of use

I had to take my 27" iMac (purchased in 2012) to the "Genius" bar today because the firewire port failed.
Prior to this:
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2 days ago:
The Apogee Duet stops working (like so many times before), so I unplug the Apogee Firewire 400-to-800 cable and this time when I reconnect, it starts rapidly blinking and clicking, so I quickly shut the iMac down. After a waiting for a few minutes I plug the Duet in and it's dead -no lights & no click. To determine if I'd just killed my Duet, I plugged it into my 2009 Macbook with a Firewire 400 cable and the Duet works. So I think.."Maybe it was the Apogee FW400/800 cable". Next day I bought a new Firewire 400/800 Cable and connected the Duet to the iMac and I still got absolutely nothing. So I booked an appointment at the Genius Bar.
Today:
The helpful gentleman there quickly discovered that the main-board needed replacement because the "newer" iMacs have all the I/O stuff attached to the motherboard. It would have cost me 800 bucks with out a warranty. While I was there, I tested my original Apogee Firewire 400/800 cable with a Macbook pro and it worked fine, ruling out the possibility that my cable could have caused the Firewire port to fail. Lastly, I asked him to connect a Thunderbolt-to-Firewire Adapter to my iMac and - yes - the Apogee Duet worked fine through the Thunderbolt Port.
In Conclusion,
I'm glad that they are going to repair this problem but it would appear I really have no choice but to extend my "Apple Care" since, in my experience, the Firewire port can spontaneously fail. As a full-time musician it's lucky for me this happened while it was still under warranty, otherwise I probably would have just bought the Thunderbolt-to-Firewire Adapter and hope the Thunderbolt ports last longer than the firewire did.
Has anyone else had their main-board replaced due to Port Failure?

Not because of Firewire, but yes, my 2007 iMac had to have extensive things replaced twice under extended AppleCare.
I personally think $2,000 dollar items should come with more than a one year warranty, unless you expect them to die shortly after a year.
Didn't need any warranty on my Quadra/630, still runs every day, they don't make Macs like they used to.

How How can i install Mountain Lion with faulty firewire ports??

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/System/Library/Extensions/IOFireWireFamily.kext
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Dowloaded Mountain Lion at least 3 times from the App store to make sure the download wasn't corrupted.
I even tried making a Lion Bootdisk so I can install Mountain Lion on a USB drive (Install ESD.dmg).
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Kurt Lang wrote:
Just some thoughts.
I presume you already partitioned the new SSD drive as GUID?
Is there anything on the new drive at all yet, or anything that isn't already backed up? If not, you could try erasing the drive and then installing OS X from the bootable flash drive installer you made.
Ive tried that and yes it is GUID. Im going to get grey hairs soon and Im not even 30 lol .... yet
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Recently, I've been having trouble using my USB and firewire ports. I have a 1TB WD external hard drive which has been working fine until about a month ago when it stopped being recognized when I connected it through Firewire. I thought maybe my firewire cable or port was bad so I tried hooking it up through the USB port and it still didn't recognize that it was connected. After playing with it for a while, I finally got it to back it up.
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Both ports are being recognized it Disk Utility and in System Profiler, and the USB ports work when I use them to charge my phone and Ipod all the time.
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Well now I feel a little silly..
I have tried using it on another computer and it was recognized just fine.
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Apple repairs my monitor and I get it back in 2 days. Great turnaround except that when I get home I connect the display to the computer connect up my firewire devices and ... the firewire ports on the display are STILL broken! ARGH!
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Password: (enter admin password)
cd /System/Library/Extensions
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Firewire ports non-responsive

I'm hoping someone might be able to shed some light on a problem I'm having.
Both my firewire ports have power but devices fail to show in iTunes or Finder. I've tried my iPod and my Lacie hard drive with the same results.
I have done the following to try to resolve the problem.
1. reset SMU
2. reset Pram
3. did an open firmware reset (reset nvram, set defaults, reset all)
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Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks in advance.

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You have done all the things I would have tried except for one. Starting up from a different system to see if that made any difference.
If you don't already have an external drive with a bootable system on it, you can use your Mac OS X installation disc. Start up from the disc to get to Installer. At the first Installer screen (after language selection), go up to the menu bar and select to run Disk Utility, from under the Utilities menu.
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Adding additional firewire ports?

Does anybody know if you can additional firewire ports to my macbook pro?
Thanks,
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Macbook pro should have 1 firewire 400 (1394a) and 1 firewire 800 (1394b) so you can just get a cable that goes 800to400 and use that 1394b jack. Or you can get an external hard drive box that has a second firewire port on it to pass through to another device. Failing that, get a firewire hub and poof lots of ports.
And yes, daisy chain.
Useful FAQ? http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60985

Will tiger revive my firewire ports?

(this is a repost of a question I posed on Imac CRT - I thought that this may be a more relevant place to post it)
I have a G3 600MHz - early 2001 blue CRT running Jaguar. (I updated my firmware properly before putting Jaguar on [update - I am not sure about this and will retry this today]).
The hard disk is getting filled and my new Lacie firewire external drive won't mount. I noticed last year thaat my kid's Ipod would not mount via firewire on the G3, but I had not used the ports since buying the computer. Both devices connect readily to my G4 laptop, so they work. The G3 firewire ports appear to work - both devices appear in the G3 system profiler (by name) but not in the disk utility (nor on the desktop of course, making them unusable).
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Try this:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88338
Scroll down to the bottom for resetting the ports:
"Shut down the computer.
Disconnect all FireWire devices and all other cables, except the keyboard and mouse cable(s).
Disconnect the computer from the power outlet and wait for 3 to 5 minutes.
Plug the computer back in and turn it on.
Reconnect the FireWire device(s) (one at a time if there is more than one) and test. Test with each FireWire port if you have more than one."
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Make sure you download the latest driver from Lacie.

Firewire port settings

Hi I just got a Seagate free agent 2TB external drive. It connects with a firewire to my imac, tiger computer. Worked great to transfer all the info to the drive but when computer or drive (not sure exactly when this happens) goes to sleep and I try to access info on the external drive it freezes the computer and nothing works. The drive works great and does not freeze when connected through a USB port. The Seagate tech people tell me that I need to turn the power off to the firewire when the computer goes to standby or sleep mode. They claim that when the computer goes to sleep the light on the external drive goes off (meaning no communication with the computer) but the drive still spins because the power is on thru the firewire and he claims that turning the power off to the firewire when the computer goes into energy saving mode will solve the problem. Does this make sense? and if yes how do I do turn the power off to the firewire port whent eh computer goes to energy save mode?
Thank you!

Hi.
Are you using the external power adapter? If so, the drive should start spinning automatically after wake from sleep, or when the Finder (or some other app) needs to open some file located in it. You should verify the power brick is working correctly, and also try a different FireWire cable, I tell you from personal experience, as I had a very strange problem with a brand new Maxtor OneTouch4 Plus: one night it made the Finder hang, and lock the system, everytime I tried to access it, until it just unmounted by itself, and wouldn't mount again, no matter how hard I tried.
It showed up in System Profiler, and even Disk Utility could spot it, but it would hang or plainly fail when attempting to repair it. The culprit: the original, Maxtor branded, FireWire cable. It was thick as a garden hose, and the whole thing was just a few weeks old...
Good Luck.

Pismo Firewire Ports Dead

My firewire ports are no longer working. They do not show up in the About This Mac. Any suggestions where to begin troubleshooting?
ELM

ELM,
You might try these resets in the order presented; disconnect all peripherals first.
- Reset the PRAM...allow three startup chimes before releasing keys, then test:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
- Reset the Open Firmware, then test:
Boot into Open Firmware by holding down the 'Command-Option-O-F' keys from a cold start while the chime is being played. You will see a command-line screen...enter these commands:
1. At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-nvram
2. Press Return.
3. At the Open Firmware prompt, type: reset-all
4. Press Return.
Example:
0 > reset-nvram
Press Return
0 > reset-all
Press Return
The reset-all command should cause the computer to restart. If this occurs, you have successfully reset the Open Firmware settings.
- If still no success, run the Hardware Test CD (after the resets) that came bundled with new Pismos if you have it.
- If you boot into 9.x, do the ports appear and can you mount the drive? If 9.x is not on the HD, boot to your 9.x CD, then see if the drive will mount.
- Can you test your FireWire device on another Mac to verify its integrity?
If all fails, you can buy an inexpensive FireWire CardBus PC card for the PCMCIA card slot. However, if your FireWire device(s) does not have its own power supply, it will not work via the FW PC card. Built-in FireWire ports supply bus power for devices like a FireWire 2.5" HD, but FW PC cards do not supply bus power. You can, however, buy a FW PC card that also has a separate power supply so that bus-powered devices will work.

BSODs lock ups and flakey firewire port - help ??

Okay I'm really getting fustrated over this laptop it's nearly 2 weeks old
and I've already had 2 BSODs the odd crash where the mouse moves but nothing
else around it works so a forced reboot was needed.
Today I had a BSOD all i did was run some untility from the taskbar called
network doctor or something.
error message:
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA (no address information supplied)
STOP: 0x00000000050
someone suggested that I may have a memory problem or my page file is corrupt.
anyway here's a run down on what i've installed so far with my laptop.
- Installed all XP security updates and patches
- Installed Firefox 1.0.1 (don't trust IE6.0 yet)
- Installed iriver download manager (my mp3 player)
- Installed winamp 2.0 and Creative Notebook Cam.
I've ran a forced boot chkdsk and no problems found.
Another thing I found interesting was nearly everytime my laptop bsods I usually
find a a yellow marker over my 1394 net adapter (firewire port) in device mananger
("cannot start device") don't know if that's related or not. A reboot seems to
clear this yellow marker but I am rather unhappy BSODs are no laughing matter.
My laptop model is the Equium A60-181 (Intel P4 HT 3.2Ghz 512Mb RAM)
Anyone else had similar problems or recommendations?
cheers,
Richard S.

Hi Richard
I understand you that you are unhappy with this all problems but there can be a lot of reasons for that. In my opinion this can happened because of some unnecessary update or some drivers installed by third-party software that you installed on your notebook.
Please reinstall OS using Recovery CD. After firs boot check in device manager if there is some hardware problem. If not you than try to start Config free (Connectivity doctor) and some other Toshiba tools to check if everything is ok.
If everything is ok try to install SP2 if you dont have it on your machine (just SP2 and not separately updates and patches). I am not sure but some of A60 are delivered with SP2.
Install all your programs slowly and follow carefully what happened after every step that you done.

Why would the Firewire Port and/or External DVD-RW suddenly not work?

Hi, it's me again. I swear, I must be destined to just use Windows machines...
Anyways, I have a used/refurbished iBook G3 500MHz 320MB RAM Dual USB (1 Firewire)laptop running OS 10.2.8 that I bought a few months ago. I went and purchased an external Firewire/USB 2.0 DVD-RW drive as I only had a CD-ROM drive on my machine and I wanted the option to burn CD's or watch/read data from DVD's (I know that with my slow processor writing DVD's -other than data- would be a stretch and have other machines to do that with anyways so it wasn't a concern really). I received it and installed it, also installed the free version of Toast that came with it, and the drive worked fine. I have not needed to use the drive since then and have not used the laptop much at all since then really, but I do need to say that I did end up adding a new user account, though I can't remember if I changed the original Admin account and then still have the one I created myself when I first started the laptop after I bought it (had a fresh install of Jaguar on it, but I have no disk to re-install with if needed) or if I created a separate (new) account and ended up deleting the Original Admin accout (I know in Windows, you cannot delete the original Admin account but I do not know if that is the same for OSX or not). I did this as I wanted a master Admin account that I just wouldn't really use and then wanted the other as my main account (and use it to connect to my home windows network) and for some reason it would not let me put a check in the box to allow that account to do so (from either Apple or my user accounts) and so I know that my main user account now is set up to allow it (was it the old Apple user account or a new one, I can't remember- sorry).
Ok, so that is the back story to my problem, which happens to be this:
I just bought a new chip of RAM (512MB to make it a machine with 576MB RAM total) and as I had been looking at getting OSX Tiger (but didn't want to do it without the extra ram and had been considering Panther instead as well), I thought it was necessary if I wanted to not bog down my machine. I bought the Install Disks on DVD for Panther, as well as an upgrade disk (DVD again) for Tiger, therefore letting me use the External Firewire DVD-RW to install Panther, and if I liked I could go ahead and upgrade to Tiger (and if I didn't like it too much, or it slowed things down too much etc, then I could always go back to panther and have both available for future options). The extra RAM coming in handy here definitely.
So I was going to install the RAM today, and decided to go ahead and test out the External DVD to make sure it could boot from it (before making any changes to my system) and then go and install the RAM, and after that, install Panther to start... But I plugged all the cords and cables in, used my laptop with AC power even, and I could not get the External to show up at all... (kinda like the very current post right below mine but for the G4- it worked before, but now the firewire External just does not show up).
I only have USB 1.1 on this laptop obviously, and I don't even know if you could do a boot from an external with USB 2.0 if my laptop had it (the DVD player does). I was recommended to boot with an external firewire DVD or firewire to another machine with DVD capabilities to do the install. So my problem right now is getting slightly bigger, as of course, I can't seem to momentarily find the stuff that came with the External (spare USB cable to check and see if the laptop will recognize it at least with that and to show it is the firewire that is not working properly, or the disk that I used to install it -might have been only used to install Toast free version if it didn't need any drivers, but I don't know where that or the instructions for installation sheet currently is -- I am looking for it, but I have switched bedrooms just last week and I also seem to be missing a few other Windows laptop disks as well so there is a good chance that they are all together, I just need to figure out where, heh.)
I am waiting currently before installing the memory, though if I don't get the External working tonight, I may go ahead and do it first as at least I will have more memory on my laptop then, until I can get other stuff functioning and be able to do the Panther install.
But my main question is, is there something that would cause an installed external to suddenly not show up in OSX? Since I hadn't used it since that one day, and it was unplugged from the laptop itself, would that end up doing it, or more likely, the changing of the user accounts (though I have been trying to test it with different types of media and through both of my user account (which are both "admin" ones), though I do still have one of those being an account that was on there when the External DVD was first installed, so it really shouldn't have done this at all (one would think). So how big of a chance is it that the firewire has somehow gone dead and this is the main culprit to my wasting the past 4 hours on this???
I am currently scavenging around for an extra USB cable to try and test the External that way and will post the results when I can... I love the look and idea of macs, now I have a mac and want to upgrade it even, but why is it that whenever I attempt to use it after having not used it for a bit (and try to make the iBook feel better by using it more as I am sure it feels sad and alone sitting on the shelf while my Windows Laptop gets more attention), or try to fix it when it can be made better (and therefore used more often), the mac (all macs really), just seem to get all pissy and cause problems and make me spend hours upon hours trying to get things to work again??? You have to admit it, I am "mac cursed"... sigh I can program in 4 or 5 computer languages and am very advanced at many tech things (the ones I am not as good at I am still usually Average or Medium skilled) so it makes me wonder why I have so many tech problems with Macs when they are supposed to be the "easy" OS to use...

Actually, I think I have it all working now. After going back to the Plextor Website, I found out that the switch between the USB and 1394 ports only gets activated (switched over to the other) with you turn the device off first, move the switch and then turn it back on. I was sure that I had done this with the ibook, but maybe not as when I went back and did it with first the USB and then the Firewire cables, it did work. I definitely knew that I had not done this with the Windows laptop, the reason it would not have the USB work for me on it.
but back to the iBook, I was confused as it was only showing up as a DVD-ROM (which I guess is what they do until you actually open up the burning software to then be able to burn to it), and it also had the wrong Model #, which after more research, showed that it was the Internal DVD drive model version (PX-708A) compared to the actual model version (PX-708UF) which is the USB/Firewire (External) model. The firmware was really out of date as well (from June 2004 I think, v1.06) and they had v1.12 from Spet/Oct 2006 available so I went to get that (which was a hassle). They had nice easy Windows self extractor/installer packs, and then the BIN files for use for all systems (Sun OS/ Mac OSX/ Mac OS/ Linux etc as well as usable for Windows), and those needed a special Firmware Updater Application which was OS specific. Only I had the hardest time trying to get the OSX one as it would send me to a FTP site and not give me any clues as to which file(s) I needed to get and the Mac OS version was just for older 9.2 or below versions and didn't want to install under the OS Classic mode.
I ended up using my windows computer which made it easier to view with the FTP stuff as I have FireFTP in Firefox, and downloaded the files I thought I needed (to test out), and then realized my silliness, and just downloaded (as well) the Windows Auto Extractor/Installer as the Firmware is the same for all OS's, just the way to install/update it was different... So I hooked the DVD drive to my PC and updated the firmware, checked it out on here before moving it back to the ibook, where I checked that it still worked and had the new update version showing, which it did, and now I have my fully working and newly updated drive ready for the OSX installations... I had attempted to update my Jaguar system as well while online, but it had no new updates available (I guess those were all mostly Tiger updates that were just recently released).
I am now off to install my additional RAM, and after checking that it all shows up correctly, I will go ahead and do the Panther Install (and test it out and see if I like it or not).
For anyone that currently uses Panther on any mac, are there still any major problems I should know about before hand, or know about things that they have mostly fixed (like the issues with Firewire ports and External Drives that they had around the time Panther was first released for example)???
Thanks to all that helped... I now know to attempt an "eject" of any external HD (which I do have one that I will setup to use after I get Panther on the ibook) or CD/DVD drive instead of just unplugging the USB/Firewire cable.

Full Firewire Port Failure (three different machines : iMac Intel, iMac G5, Black Macbook)

I'm experiencing a failure of all FireWire ports on all of my three machines. I believe this problem began with a faulty external, FireWire powered hard drive from G-Tech. Here are all my specs, followed by a rundown of the order of events that has lead to this situation, followed by the various troubleshooting I have done.
Equipment :
iMac Aluminum Intel - 24" Mid 2007 - running OsX 10.5.8 - currently 1 FW400 and 1 FW800 ports disabled
iMac G5 - 20" - running OsX 10.5.8 - currently 2 FW400 ports disabled
MacBook - 13" black Early 2008 - running OsX 10.5.8 - currently 1 FW400 port disabled
2 500GB G-Drives (by G-Tech) - AC powered
1 5TB G-RAID Drive (by G-Tech) - AC powered
1 250GB G-Drive Mini (by G-Tech) - FW powered
Initial Setup :
1 500GB G-Drive connected directly to iMac Intel via FW800
1 500GB G-Drive connected to first 500GB G-Drive via FW800 (daisy chained)
1 250GB G-Drive connected to second 500GB G-Drive via FW400 (daisy chained)
1 5TB G-RAID connected directly to iMac Intel via FW800>400 adapter
Sequence of Events :
I had transferred some files to my G-Drive Mini in order to move them to my MacBook from my iMac Intel. I copied the files to the G-Drive Mini and ejected it normally and plugged it into my MacBook via FW400. The drive would not mount, and the power indication light would not go on. After experimenting with various connections and cables I was able to get the drive to power with FW400 and USB connected at the same time, but the drive would still not mount.
I then plugged the G-Drive Mini back into the 2nd 500GB G-Drive as it was previously connected via FW400. This action caused the G-Drive to immediately reboot and eject itself from my iMac Intel.
I then attempted to plug the G-Drive Mini into my older iMac G5 via FW400. Immediately upon plugging in, the computer shut down, and would not restart.
At this point I kind of started to freak out. I was unaware of the extent of the damage, but was upset that the FW powered G-Drive Mini had shutdown my iMac G5. I contacted G-Tech Support and they offered to replace the drive and instructed me how to manually reset the computer's SMC by opening up the iMac and finding the Cuda switch. This worked and the computer was able to start and function again, but the FW400 port seemed to be disabled.
I then tried to swap out configurations and drives on my iMac Intel to see if there was any cable problems, but doing so, slowly rendered all my FireWire ports useless. It's almost as if the act of plugging in the FW-powered G-Drive Mini started a kind of shortout chain reaction. I soon learned that none of my hard drives would connect to any of my three machines, with any kind of cable combination via FW400 or 800.
I am currently able to connect my 5TB G-RAID drive to any machine via USB, as well as my G-Drive Mini. I am unable to access the other two external hard drives, as one has only FW400 and 800 ports and the other's USB connection is not functional as well on any machine.
Troubleshooting Steps Taken :
I have on all machines, reset the SMC in the following methods. iMac G5 - manually, by opening the case and pressing Cuda switch. iMac Intel - unplug, hold power button, restart method. MacBook - unplug, hold power button, restart method.
I have also on all machines, reset the PRAM by the Cmnd + Opt + P + R method at startup.
I have also unplugged all cables / removed battery, from all machines and left alone for a period of at least 12 hours, then re-plugged in each device one at a time.
I have also restored my hibernate mode (through Terminal) on my iMac Intel to mode 3 and also turned on Virtual Memory in system preferences and set hibernatemode to mode 7, the restarted and attempted to plug in devices. The reason I even began to deal with the hibernate mode was because I had around the same time my ports began malfunctioning, installed the DeepSleep widget, which allows you to control your computer's hibernate mode. I thought that tweaking with this setting may have made my computer incapable of recognizing devices that were plugged in. I have since uninstalled the widget and experimented with different hibernatemodes to no avail.
I also have Repaired Disk Permissions and Repaired Disk on all my machines, from within my Admin User as well as from the OsX Install Disk.
Sometimes in my System Profiler (like right now for example on my iMac Intel) my computer is "Unable to list FireWire devices," but sometimes, no warning message comes up and it simply displays the appropriate Bus speed.
I also conducted a system restore using a backup from my 5TB G-Raid Drive via USB, to a date before these problems started, but my ports are still not working.
Summary :
I am looking at a situation where all my FW ports on all my computers appear to be disabled, and possibly also on my four external hard drives, with one possible USB port malfunction on one external drive. The only root of this seems to be a malfunctioning FW-powered external hard drive.
Is this possible? Has this happened to anyone else before? G-Tech assures me that it is impossible for my 250GB G-Drive Mini to draw enough power from a computer to permanently disable any ports, but I have tried all of the FW port problem troubleshooting steps and am at a loss.
I do not have AppleCare and would like to avoid bringing two iMacs, a MacBook and four hard drives to the Apple store and take my chances with the geniuses.
I would appreciate any help or advice you all have. Thanks for reading and for your support!

Ok. So if that was too confusing, I've re-labeled this post with letters for my hard drives and some mapping of the connectivity configurations I have attempted.
Equipment :
iMac Aluminum Intel - 24" Mid 2007 - running OsX 10.5.8 - currently 1 FW400 and 1 FW800 ports disabled
iMac G5 - 20" - running OsX 10.5.8 - currently 2 FW400 ports disabled
MacBook - 13" black Early 2008 - running OsX 10.5.8 - currently 1 FW400 port disabled
1 500GB G-Drive (by G-Tech) w/ no USB port - AC powered : A
1 500GB G-Drive (by G-Tech) w/ USB port - AC powered : B
1 5TB G-RAID Drive (by G-Tech) - AC powered : C
1 250GB G-Drive Mini (by G-Tech) - FW powered : D
Initial Setup :
C > FW400-800 adapter > iMac Intel
D > FW400 > A > FW800 > B > FW800 > iMac Intel
Sequence of Events :
D > FW400 > MacBook
I had transferred some files to my G-Drive Mini D in order to move them to my MacBook from my iMac Intel. I copied the files to the G-Drive Mini D and ejected it normally and plugged it into my MacBook via FW400. The drive would not mount, and the power indication light would not go on. After experimenting with various connections and cables I was able to get the drive to power with FW400 and USB connected at the same time, but the drive would still not mount.
D > FW400 > A > FW800 > B > FW800 > iMac Intel
I then plugged the G-Drive Mini D back into the 2nd 500GB G-Drive A as it was previously connected via FW400. This action caused the G-Drive to immediately reboot and eject itself from my iMac Intel.
D > FW400 > iMac G5
I then attempted to plug the G-Drive Mini into my older iMac G5 via FW400. Immediately upon plugging in, the computer shut down, and would not restart.
At this point I kind of started to freak out. I was unaware of the extent of the damage, but was upset that the FW powered G-Drive Mini D had shutdown my iMac G5. I contacted G-Tech Support and they offered to replace the drive and instructed me how to manually reset the computer's SMC by opening up the iMac and finding the Cuda switch. This worked and the computer was able to start and function again, but the FW400 port seemed to be disabled.
I then tried to swap out configurations and drives on my iMac Intel to see if there was any cable problems, but doing so, slowly rendered all my FireWire ports useless. It's almost as if the act of plugging in the FW-powered G-Drive Mini D started a kind of shortout chain reaction. I soon learned that none of my hard drives would connect to any of my three machines, with any kind of cable combination via FW400 or 800.
D > USB > AnyMachine
C > USB > AnyMachine
I am currently able to connect my 5TB G-RAID C drive to any machine via USB, as well as my G-Drive Mini D. I am unable to access the other two external hard drives, as one has only FW400 and 800 ports (A) and the other's USB connection is not functional as well on any machine (B).
Troubleshooting Steps Taken :
I have on all machines, reset the SMC in the following methods. iMac G5 - manually, by opening the case and pressing Cuda switch. iMac Intel - unplug, hold power button, restart method. MacBook - unplug, hold power button, restart method.
I have also on all machines, reset the PRAM by the Cmnd + Opt + P + R method at startup.
I have also unplugged all cables / removed battery, from all machines and left alone for a period of at least 12 hours, then re-plugged in each device one at a time.
I have also restored my hibernate mode (through Terminal) on my iMac Intel to mode 3 and also turned on Virtual Memory in system preferences and set hibernatemode to mode 7, the restarted and attempted to plug in devices. The reason I even began to deal with the hibernate mode was because I had around the same time my ports began malfunctioning, installed the DeepSleep widget, which allows you to control your computer's hibernate mode. I thought that tweaking with this setting may have made my computer incapable of recognizing devices that were plugged in. I have since uninstalled the widget and experimented with different hibernatemodes to no avail.
I also have Repaired Disk Permissions and Repaired Disk on all my machines, from within my Admin User as well as from the OsX Install Disk.
Sometimes in my System Profiler (like right now for example on my iMac Intel) my computer is "Unable to list FireWire devices," but sometimes, no warning message comes up and it simply displays the appropriate Bus speed.
I also conducted a system restore using a backup from my 5TB G-Raid Drive C via USB, to a date before these problems started, but my ports are still not working.
Summary :
I am looking at a situation where all my FW ports on all my computers appear to be disabled, and possibly also on my four external hard drives (A, B, C, D), with one possible USB port malfunction on one external drive (B). The only root of this seems to be a malfunctioning FW-powered external hard drive.
Is this possible? Has this happened to anyone else before? G-Tech assures me that it is impossible for my 250GB G-Drive Mini D to draw enough power from a computer to permanently disable any ports, but I have tried all of the FW port problem troubleshooting steps and am at a loss.
I do not have AppleCare and would like to avoid bringing two iMacs, a MacBook and four hard drives to the Apple store and take my chances with the geniuses.
I would appreciate any help or advice you all have. Thanks for reading and for your support!

Firewire port not working Mac Mini (G4 1.25ghz)

Hi,
The firewire port isn't working on my mac mini, I've tried several devices, but none are connecting. I was wondering if anyone else was having this issue and possibly a solution. The only software installed on the computer since the firewire worked last was Apple updates, so maybe other mini's lost firewire somewhere along the way.
Thanks, and Thanks
W

This worked from Smokerz in the Power Mac G4 forum:
1. Shut-down your Mac, and unplug the power cord
2. Turn the power off on your external FireWire devices
3. Unplug the FireWire devices from the Mac
4. Wait for 5 min.
5. Plug the power cord to your Mac only
6. For PPC Macs: Restart the Mac while holding the Option-Apple-O-F, and keep holding until you get the ">" prompt, then release the keys
7. At the ">" prompt type:
reset-nvram and hit the Return key
set-defaults and hit the Return key
reset-all and hit the Return key
the last command will restart your mac
8. Shut down your Mac
9. Connect all your FireWire devices to the Mac and turn them on
10. Restart your Mac.
Works fine now thanks Smokerz!!!!!
also repaired permission and reset PRAM, nothing worked until I did this.
W

Is my Firewire port failing?

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